Chair attachment.



H, R. REISCHMANN.

CHAIR ATTACHMENT.

APPLICATION FILED AUG. I6. 19I5.

1,200,134. Patented Oct. 3,1916.

WITNESSES INVENTOR ML Henry Riga 336M010:

ATTORNEY HENRY R. REISCHMANN, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

orIAIn ATTACHMENT.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Oct. 3, 1916.

Application filed August 16, 1915. Serial No. 45,842.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HENRY R. REISCH- MANN, a citizen of the United States, residing at New York, in the county of Bronx and State of New York, have invented new and useful Improvements in Chair Attachments, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to chair attachments and has as its principal object, to provide a device of this character by the use of which accidents, caused by the upsetting of chairs in crowded localities in the case of panics, may be prevented.

It is a well known fact that some localities, such as restaurants, cabarets, theaters and the like, contain a great number of chairs which, when the public gets frightened and rush out suddenly, are overturned, so that people stumble over them and become seriously and quite often fatally injured thereby. It is not convenient in such.

localities to fix the chairs immovably in one position (which of course would prevent such accidents) because the public prefers to have chairs which move within limits on the floor, in order to approach or move away from a neighboring chair or for tilting them back with a view of a more comfortable position. Also, it is often necessary to have the chairs positioned normally in a certain predetermined order but with the possibility of temporarily moving them out of that position in order to allow the respective persons to occupy or to leave their seats. Now, in view of these requirements of safety and convenience, I have invented my device which will hereafter be more fully described and is shown in its preferred form of embodiment in the accompanying drawing, in which Figure 1 is a side elevational view of a chair equipped with my device, in its normal position, and Fig. 2 is a side elevational view of the same showing in full lines the chair tilted back and in dotted lines the chair in a horizontal, but out of vertical alinement with its normal, position.

The same part is designated by the same reference character throughout the separate views.

Referring more particularly to the drawings, 3 is a common chair having four legs, such as 4, and a circular seat 5. To the center of the bottom of the seat 5 is attached a staple 6 and a similar staple 7 is attached to the floor in vertical alinement with the staple 6 in the normal position of the chair. Attached to the staples 6 and 7 is a chain 8 of a length which allows the chair to be moved on the floor within a predetermined circle but absolutely prevents the possibility of its being upset. A helical coil spring 9 is similarly attached to the staples 6 and 7 surrounding the chain 8 in such a way, that the latter is adapted to collapse th'erewithin in the normal position of all parts. It will be evident from this arrangement that when the chair 3 is tilted as shown, for instance, in Fig. 2 in full lines, the chain 8 will become taut and the spring 9 will be put under tension. The chain is not long enough to permit the chair to be overturned and the spring tends to return the chair to its original normal position. In the same way the chair may be moved on a horizontal plane out of vertical alinement with its normal position, as shown in dotted lines in Fig. 2, in which case the spring also tends to return it to the normal position as soon as released by the occupant. Owing to this arrangement, the chairs can temporarily be moved to various horizontal and vertical positions by their occupants but will always be returned to their normal position, which is in a predetermined order, when the occupants leave their seats, and

upsetting of the chair thus equipped is ab solutely impossible. Therefore in case of a fire or another scare when people in crowded places are likely to rush out headlong without attention to their neighborsaccidents caused by upset chairs are prevented and thus the safety of the public greatly enhanced.

I claim 1. An attachment for chairs comprising, in combination, a chain adapted to be secured with one end to the floor and with the other end to the bottom of the seat of a common chair, said chain being of a length to allow a sliding and tilting movement of the chair on the floor within predetermined limits but absolutely preventing its being upset, and a coil spring disposed around said chain.v attachable to the floor and to the bottom of the chair seat tending to keep said chair in a predetermined position on the floor.

2. An attachment for chairs comprising, in combination, a chain adapted to be secured with one end to the floor and with the other end to the center of the bottom of the seat of a chair normally in vertical alinement with the attaching point of said chain to the floor, said chain being of a length'to allow a sliding and tilting movement of the chair on the floor Within predeterniined limits but absolutely preventing its being upset, and a coil spring disposed around said chain attachable to the floor and t0 the bottom of the chair seat, tending in to keep said chair in a predetermined position on the floor.

I HENRY R. REISCHMANN.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. G. 

